Present plastic packaging techniques involve molding a plastic "body" around a semiconductor die. Prior to molding, the die is attached to a lead frame having a plurality of leads ultimately exiting the package for connecting the semiconductor device to external circuits, such as via conductors on a printed circuit board. Various forms of plastic packs are known, including DIP (Dual In-line Package), PQFP (Plastic Quad Flat Pack) and PLCC (plastic leaded chip carrier.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show a typical plastic-packaged semiconductor device 100 of the prior art. A semiconductor die 102 is connected, such as by a number of bond wires 104, to inner ends of a corresponding number of leads 106. Other techniques for connecting the die to the inner ends of the leads are known. A plastic body 108 is formed about the die 102 and the inner ends of the leads, by any of a number of known molding processes. The exposed outer portions of the leads 106, exterior the body 108, are bent downwardly (indicated by the dashed line "C") and outwardly (indicated by the dashed line "D") to form what is commonly termed a "gull wing" configuration. Each lead 106 has a width (w) on the order of six thousandths of an inch (0.2 mm), and the spacing (s) between adjacent leads 106 is typically on the order of ten thousandths of an inch (0.25 mm).
The present invention becomes important when lead "pitch", i.e. the center-to-center dimension between adjacent leads, is 0.5 mm or less, in which case the lead spacing "s" is on the order of 0.25 mm or less.
FIG. 1B shows a lead form (or frame) 120 having a plurality of leads 106. The lead frame is formed from a conductive foil having a thickness (t) on the order of a few thousandths of an inch (e.g. 0.004-0.006 inch). The material for the leads 106 is typically copper, or "Alloy 42". As shown, the leads 106 terminate in an outer square ring portion 122 of the lead frame 120, from which the completed (packaged) device is ultimately excised, as indicated by the dashed line "A". Of particular note in FIG. 1B are "dambars" 124 bridging adjacent leads 106 at a position indicated by the dashed line "B" (closely adjacent or immediately exterior to the body 108. The dambars 124 are formed from the conductive material forming the leads 106, and hence are of the same thickness as the leads 106. These dambars 124 aid in maintaining alignment between the inner ends of the leads, although a die attach pad (not shown) formed from the foil is typically employed and will serve the same purpose. More importantly, however, the dambars 124 are critical in the molding process.
In the molding process, the lead frame 120 (with die 102 attached) is pressed between the two "clamshell" halves of a mold (not shown). The die 102 and inner ends of the leads are contained within (the void of) the mold, which is filled with plastic. Since the leads create a gap between the clamshell halves of the mold, the dambars 124 prevent plastic from "flashing" between the leads 106 exterior the body 108. After the die is packaged in the plastic body, the dambars 124 are excised, and any residual plastic flash between the outer portions of leads 106 is cleaned out in a "dejunking" step.
As the lead count (number of leads) of semiconductor devices increases, the leads tend to become both thinner and narrower. (The spacing between leads is limited by practical minimums.) Hence, there arises difficulties during any handling of the devices in maintaining alignment between the leads, notably coplanarity and parallelness (and lack of skew) of the leads. Further, as the leads become more fragile, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain alignment of the leads with the conductors of wiring patterns on printed circuit boards to which the semiconductor devices are mounted.